First: never let sv_maxclients be above 16 (there's only 16 ships available, so the 17th guy's gonna be really annoyed... :) )

I've noticed some people running their servers on cable and DSL modems (some not even dedicated or are running a client and server on the same machine). Unless your server has good bandwidth (upload), you should probably set the sv_maxrate to whatever is appropriate for your server. Generally, a sv_maxrate of 6000 is the lowest you can set and still have it be fully playable. Here's a more detailed write-up:

sv_maxrate is the maximum bandwidth the server will send to each client. You can set this low so that clients with low rates (on modems) get the same amount of data as high-speed clients (for fairness, I guess). Since vehicles and this map pretty much requires good bandwidth, and the maximum number of players is 16 (though 8 is probably best), I'm not sure it's much of an issue. The only real thing to beware of is clients who set their rate super-high to try to eat up all your bandwidth! So a high number is recommended. Basically, divide your bandwidth by the max number of players you allow in the map and that's a good sv_maxrate (use the formula below)

A complete description of sv_maxrate:

sv_maxRate - sets the maximum allowable rate a client may have set when connected to the server. The default is 0, which is no limit. A suggested setting is 8000 or 10000 so server bandwidth is not used up by high speed clients, thus allowing modem players to have a smoother game.
Usage: sv_maxRate <#####>

The sv_maxrate setting in your server config file determines the maximum connection rate allowed for each client / player. Clients that have a rate higher than the sv_maxrate have their rate capped at the sv_maxrate.

The higher your rate, the more data that is sent back and forth between the server and the clients. A higher sv_maxrate means a smoother game for clients who have fast internet connections, but the higher the sv_maxrate the higher the bandwidth consumption on ther server.

Note that if a couple of clients were to set their rates to very high values eg 1000000, then they could take all the server bandwidth leaving other players with very little bandwidth, even if they have cable modems! Obviously not good!

"What should I set the sv_maxrate to?"

Server admins should set their sv_maxrate to an appropriate value taking into the account the number of clients / players and the bandwidth / connection speed of the server.

MATH
[Connection Speed] / ([Num Clients] x 8 ) = [sv_maxrate]

So, in the case of a server with a 256 kbps connection...
16 players...
256,000 / (16 x 8 ) = sv_maxrate = 2000
10 players...
256,000 / (10 x 8 ) = sv_maxrate = 3200
8 players...
256,000 / (8 x 8 ) = sv_maxrate = 4000

JKA will work with sv_maxrate as low as 3000, but it will not be enjoyable for the players.

And in the case of a 100mbps server (like servers hosted by Art of War) with...
20 players...
100,000,000 / (20 x 8 ) = sv_maxrate = 625000
16 players...
100,000,000 / (16 x 8 ) = sv_maxrate = 781250
10 players...
100,000,000 / (10 x 8 ) = sv_maxrate = 1250000

These are ridiculously high, and I have capped the sv_maxrate on our server to 25000, the rate that most clients with cable modems will use.!

Note that the connection is not the only aspect to take into account when determining the number of players to allow on your server. Sometimes the specs of the server are the bottleneck, rather than the connection. A P3-550 server with 256Mb on Linux will hold 10-12 players before it gets choppy.

Hey i remember you, nice flighing on your part hope i'll have less lag next time ;)

Originally posted by ChangKhan[RAVEN]
I've noticed some people running their servers on cable and DSL modems (some not even dedicated or are running a client and server on the same machine).

lol but that guy didn't even think people would join and he was just wanting to check the map.

38 minutes and I can throw it up on my server and see how it behaves.. ; )

Originally posted by Lightning

lol but that guy didn't even think people would join and he was just wanting to check the map.

Yeah, it's early, yet, but I just don't want people thinking there's something wrong with the map because there are some laggy servers out there. In cases where there was bad lag, it always turned out to be because the server was running a client on the same machine as the dedicated server or it was on DSL or Cable, etc.

The most important things are to set a reasonable sv_maxrate and sv_maxclients for your server and to not run other processes on the same machine.

Heh, those were scripted NPCs in the end right? Thats just plain awesome. I was wondering why you guys hadnt thrown them in from the start, of course, now ive heard you have been working on this for a while (since before JA came out) :D I like that, you sort of made a cutscene in MP.

*just checked .pk3* yeah, i see IBIs in there, several of em' and some new NPCs :D

The map has spread quickly, I was just on a server, and it was packed (laggy) but packed. But im on a 56k, so that would explain my lag. Everyone else was... maybe 200 or less.

Hey ChangKhan, since you were asking about -/337-Siege Destroyer-OC48| (66.135.33.99:29070) just before I left it last night, I did some searching. I found out that it's a 1 GHz Duron machine running Linux, and is provided by ServerBeach of San Antonio, TX. Unfortunately, info on the type of net connection on ServerBeach's website was sketchy at best, but I believe it's at least a T1 line.

Oh, and sorry about that TK, you drifted into my field of fire when I was chasing (I think) Majevh.

Originally posted by lukeskywalker1
Heh, those were scripted NPCs in the end right? Thats just plain awesome. I was wondering why you guys hadnt thrown them in from the start, of course, now ive heard you have been working on this for a while (since before JA came out) :D I like that, you sort of made a cutscene in MP.

*just checked .pk3* yeah, i see IBIs in there, several of em' and some new NPCs :D Heh, I've already ripped open the pk3 and changed the Lando_cin NPC to use the Han Solo model. :p

Originally posted by Executor32
Hey ChangKhan, since you were asking about -/337-Siege Destroyer-OC48| (66.135.33.99:29070) just before I left it last night, I did some searching. I found out that it's a 1 GHz Duron machine running Linux, and is provided by ServerBeach of San Antonio, TX. Unfortunately, info on the type of net connection on ServerBeach's website was sketchy at best, but I believe it's at least a T1 line.

Interesting. I few things I have noticed:

A lot of servers are running with several extra pk3 files. This is, generally, not a great idea if they're not being used as they could conflict with some stuff in the destroyer map or may cause people to not be able to join the server.

I have found some servers with excellent ping for the clients, but the ships still move in a somewhat jerky manner. This is almost definitely due to the server, itself, running at less than 20 fps. This can happen on a machine that is running other CPU-intensive processes (like running a client on the same machine or, like many server providers, I imagine, running several servers for different games on the same machine). Space combat is pretty CPU-intensive (there are a lot of very long ghoul2 traces and tons of missiles flying around, etc.) and it can be pretty demanding on a server that is running other tasks. Unfortunately, I don't know what people can do about this if they're renting a server. If you own your server machine and are running the server yourself, just make sure you're not running other tasks that could be competing with the server for CPU time... you can use the Task Manager (or other performance monitoring utils) to see how taxed your CPU is...

As for the servers with high pings, I'm not sure if the problem is their location, server CPU peaking or not setting an sv_maxrate & sv_maxclients appropriate to your upload bandwidth (see first post in thread)...

This map doesn't really require more bandwidth than other Jedi maps, but it's more obvious when there is some lag since you're constantly moving at high speeds and trying to aim at other targets moving at high speeds (as opposed to people running at a relatively slow clip playing lightsaber animations or taking a few shots every now and then).

Well I noticed that if I had nothing else running or tying up not only the CPU, but the bandwidth in general, my 2mb download, 256Kb upload could handle between 4-6 people at 6000 rate with the average ping being about 150 or so, but if a couple 56kers joined, that 150 doubles to 300. So its all about having not only a good connection, but a fast cpu that isnt trying to compete for cpu resources. a heavy load 1Ghz doing more poorly than a PII 300Mhz Gateway says something right there.

Oh and mind you that my server has these specs

PII 300 Mhz
256 PC100 RAM
7GB HDD
Radeon 7200 SE

So as you can see, its not too bad considering all the factors that go into hosting a server, especially a space-based siiege one.
Course if I use THIS pc, it is

AMD 1900 XP
768 PC2700 RAM
GeForce FX 5900
60GB HDD

Which could probably handle 8 people or so, since when I host a server I do like NOTHING else.